If you're looking for musical analysis there are a few authors who do far better than MacDonald...Tell Me Why by Timothy White, Allan Kozinn (NY Times writer and Beatle scholar) and most importantly Walter Everett (Beatles As Musicians, vol1 & 2). Allan Pollack also has online breakdowns of the music and songs that is very well written and researched.

Everett is the most accurate and fastidious (and recent), however, unless you understand pure musical theory to a GREAT depth 70% of it will go right over your head (goes over mine but I like the other 30%).

[quote by=misterchaz link=Blah.pl?b=books,m=1078928553,s=23 date=1081304657]Everett is the most accurate and fastidious (and recent), however, unless you understand pure musical theory to a GREAT depth 70% of it will go right over your head (goes over mine but I like the other 30%).[/quote]

Thanks for that Mr Charlie! To be honest, at times even Ian MacDonalds book was over my head. It is fascinating though - I wish someone would disect me one day!!! Maybe not! LOL!

OK, I've been looking at scads of pictures of Ringo and I seriously am beginning to think this guy is ambidexterous! He eats with his left hand, usually, he smokes with either hand...he uses either hand to hold objects...he appears to sign autographs with his right...arg!

UPDATE: dig this-

"I used to get put down in the press a lot for my silly fills, as we liked to call them, and that mainly came about because I am a left-handed right-handed drummer; that means I'm left-handed but the kit's set up for a right-handed drummer, so I come off the hi-hat and the snare...any ordinary drummer would come off with the right hand...so if I wanna come off, I have to come off with the left hand, which means I have to miss a... miniscule of a beat....I can go around the kit from the floor tom to the top toms which are on the bass drum easy, but I can't go the other way because the left hand has to keep coming in underneath the right one."

-[Ringo Starr 1983 'Ringo's Yellow Submarine' ABC Radio Network]

I -finally- found the quote myself in Walter Everett's The Beatles As Musicians:The Quarry Men through Rubber Soul' book, page 121.

;-)

(BTW as a drummer I agree...it is HARD to play it backwards like Ringo, I still try, and your hands tend to bang into each other because it's just not natural.)

Logged

NothingIsReal

I'm left-handed and I want to play drums. Do you think I should play right-handed or left-handed? I'm not sure if I can do things right-handed because I play guitar and everything else lefty, too. Thanks!

You should do whatever feels right to you. I've never really heard of left-handedness being an issue before Ringo, and I'm sure there were many other lefties behind a kit. If playing a normal setup feels really awkward you might try to reverse everything, position wise.

[quote by=misterchaz link=Blah.pl?b=books,m=1078928553,s=25 date=1081355817]I am a left-handed right-handed drummer; that means I'm left-handed but the kit's set up for a right-handed drummer, so I come off the hi-hat and the snare...any ordinary drummer would come off with the right hand...so if I wanna come off, I have to come off with the left hand, which means I have to miss a... miniscule of a beat....I can go around the kit from the floor tom to the top toms which are on the bass drum easy, but I can't go the other way because the left hand has to keep coming in underneath the right one."[/quote]

Well done Mr Charlie! I think that pretty much wins the argument

Obviously Ringo is to a certain extent ambidextrous - but plays drums left-handed... thank God! It's another reason why the Beatles' sound is SO unique!

Exactly. Paul is also a leftie (obviously) and sometimes his fills also sound odd to me, but nothing like Ringo's...perhaps because Ringo is a more accomplished drummer, no matter which direction he is moving.

At the time of it's release, it was THE definitive book of the Beatles on record. After EMI opened up their vaults to Mark Lewisohn, his books have pretty much eclipsed Stannard's. It is still a very handy little book to have though!

I remember I couldn't put this book down when I bought it! It articles about the as-yet-unreleased BBC tracks and EMI tracks plus chart facts and figures! It even had an article about the "Paul is dead" hoax... YES, HOAX!!